Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Dec. 20, 2020. Gospel of St. Luke 1:26-38. Theme: The Annunciation - A Message of Hope and Promise
Today’s liturgy has a strong central optimistic theme of hope and promise, something we stand in such great need of during these times of medical and political turmoil. King David of Jerusalem, the most beloved of all Israel’s rulers, is highlighted in the first reading and his connection to Jesus is an important part of God’s message to Mary in the Gospel. You see, David was and remained a sign of hope to the Jews because he was the one who brought them from division and struggles into an era of earthly peace and prosperity. The Messiah was always prophesied to be a King like David however his peace and prosperity would not be earthly and temporary, it was to be interior, spiritual, and eternal.
But by the time Mary was receiving the message of the angel in her village of Nazareth, the kingdom of David had deteriorated and the people of Israel were living under cruel Roman oppression. Once more they found themselves in a difficult time of turmoil and there seemed to be no political ruler like David to whom they could look with hope for rescue and liberation. The Jewish leadership had decided to coexist with Rome as best they could while the lives of the ordinary everyday citizens were lived under the suffocating laws and taxation of an over-reaching government. The world as they knew it was ripe for the Messiah.
From a totally human and worldly outlook we too are living in times of turmoil and oppression. Greedy government caused the Jews to live in economic struggle and increasing poverty. Arrogant government over-regulated their lives while their Roman troops monitored their movements to control the population. Their puppet-leader, King Herod, gave religious lip service to Judaism for popular approval while cooperating covertly in the oppression of his people.
This sounds oh so familiar to me as we experience a dark period in our history in which we have a government that seems to put the freedoms and rights of the constitution on hold. So many states are arrogantly ruled by politicians who heartlessly cause workers to lose their wages and cause the dying to face death alone. And with seemingly Herod-like duplicity, we have a president-elect who publicizes his Catholicism to attract the religious vote yet advocates the most anti-Christian and anti-life policies the nation as ever seen.
I don’t know about you, but more than ever I feel the time is ripe for us to yearn for the Messiah as well.
And so, we need to receive today’s Gospel with joy because it reminds us that it was into a dark and dreary world like ours that the bright light of the Annunciation’s hope and promise took place. It calls us to keep our eyes on that light and to latch onto that hope. I find the Annunciation to be something astounding, something beyond belief, something that cannot be ignored. it is something so completely opposite of everything we human beings would imagine or fabricate concerning God and religion.
According to the way we humans think and how we have defined religion in our long and varied cultural history, it’s not supposed to happen like this! If we look at ancient records and artifacts we see that throughout human history pagan gods laughed at humans in their tragedies, they didn’t come to help them. And they certainly did not become human and vulnerable, living as humans do. No, the religious stories of those make-believe gods had them living selfish lives of gross hedonism, as they thrived on war, thirsted for blood, and lusted for pleasure. They were strict and demanding of their measly human subjects whose lives they were said to hold or crush in the palm of their hands. They acted with arrogant superiority over human beings, treating them like pawns on the chessboard of life.
No, there’s no way we would have ever imagined that the God who is almighty and eternal would love each one of us so much, so passionately, that it would break his heart to remain apart from us. We would have never imagined that God would break through the darkness of fear among the people to became one of us, a God who could be seen and heard and touched. But that’s precisely what the Annunciation proclaims. And that’s why Christmas has always been and will always be so very special and endearing to the human heart. It always brings a message of hope and promise even in the most difficult of times. For it reminds us that our God with us as Emmanuel, which means: God-among-us, God-like-us, God-who-has-become-one-of-us.
The Annunciation to Mary
Your homilies are always impressive and informative, but this one especially hit home, so insightfully describing our turbulent times and so inspiringly giving us hope for better days to come. Thank you.
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